A young yodelling choir between tradition and modernity

"As long as the respect for yodelling and traditions is maintained, I think it's great when there are new things," says Anna Kölbener about the balancing act between old and new. SRF

More and more young people are getting into yodelling. The Jutz youth choir wants to preserve this tradition, but also bring a breath of fresh air into the yodelling world. This is a balancing act.

Anna Kölbener stands next to the piano in her parents’ living room and switches from her chest voice to her head voice – the change that characterises yodelling. The 25-year-old studied choral conducting in Basel and grew up in the municipality of Stein in canton Appenzell Outer Rhodes in northeastern Switzerland. “In our village, people have always yodelled or “zäuerlet”, as the natural yodelling is called here,” she says.

Nevertheless, she would have liked to have been a boy as a child, because “here in Appenzellerland it’s special that girls and women don’t ‘zäuerlen’ like that”. Although there are women who do it, she explains, yodelling is generally linked to traditions there, such as the Silversterchlausen, and it is mainly men who actively participate. Women play more of a supporting role. “But I personally just really enjoy yodelling.”

Kölbener irons her traditional costume for the upcoming yodelling festival. SRF

Growth in youth choirs

Kölbener is not alone in this. According to the Swiss Yodelling Association, there has been a noticeable increase in interest in yodelling among young people, which is reflected in the growing number of young members.

Kölbener also lives out her passion as choir leader of the youth choir jutz.ch. At this year’s Central Switzerland Yodelling Festival in Sempach, the choir performed a song that was composed especially for them. A modern piece, she says. Not necessarily in terms of the lyrics, but the harmonies and time changes are unusual. “And it’s for a mixed choir, because most yodelling songs were written for male choirs.”

Singing in the youth choir SRF

Some experts and music teachers from the yodelling world speak of a noticeable breath of fresh air. This year, Switzerland’s first female student completed a Master’s degree in yodelling, the first yodelling club for gay men was founded a few months ago, and the choir “Echo vom Eierstock” has been causing a stir with its feminist lyrics for around two years.

With jutz.ch, Kölbener also wants to break out of the very traditional environment. The choir is unanimous: tradition that doesn’t evolve stagnates, and if you want young people to continue, you have to move with the times. Nevertheless, she says that it’s important to her “to make something new out of what already exists and not create something completely new”.

It’s not only because of its young members that the choir stands out at the yodelling festival. Because they come from different regions, the women wear different traditional costumes. This is not an everyday occurrence for a yodelling choir. Bringing these different worlds closer together is also a goal for Kölbener. “I want to show people who have nothing to do with yodelling how cool yodelling can be, and show the yodelling world what else is possible.”